TRANCE AND MODERNITY IN THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN pdf

Trance And Modernity In The Southern Caribbean African And Hindu Popular Religions In Trinidad And Tobago

TRANCE AND MODERNITY IN THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN

From the Book

Shakti refers to the cosmic energy of the universe and is especially associated with the goddesses of Hinduism. In the local practice of mediumship, shakti is temporarily “raised” or “elevated” in the bodies of Hindu mediums.

 In this context, it is conceptualized as a potent spiritual “energy” capable of doing superhuman “work” through the vehicle of the votary’s body. Shakti is also referred to as “power” and may come in generalized as well as highly specific forms.

My rationale for keeping my participant-observation nonecstatic—a decision I am more skeptical of in hindsight—was a naive belief that doing so would enable me to remain more objective.

 And given the comparative nature of my research on both African and Hindu spiritisms, I believed it would be problematic to personally cultivate the ecstasy of one tradition and not the other.

 I was apprehensive about “catching power” but playing the fool.

 And I was concerned, as well, about acquiring spiritual obligations that would become impracticable upon my return to the United States.

 In one of our earlier conversations, the Guru and his pujaris had argued that I should allow them to help me undergo the experience of shakti, given the centrality of ceremonial ecstasy within this Hindu tradition. “Yuh cyan [can’t] jus’ talk about it,” they said, “yuh have to feel it.”

Conceding their point, I nonetheless countered that anthropology is a human science and therefore concerned primarily with social and cultural dynamics, not theological ones